The Godchild

Having been adopted as an infant and raised in America, a young woman returns to India, the land of her birth. Searching for her biological mother, she meets the missionary doctor who treated her as a baby and discovers unsettling questions surrounding her past. It also offers a disquieting portrait of a Christian compound in rural India, where “doing good” isn’t always as simple as it might seem.

Reviews

His empathy with the people of that vast and diverse country gives him insight.

– Irish Times

Stephen Alter, an American who has spent almost all of his life in India, is at his best when evoking the mystery and complexity of that country… (His) vision is both unsparingly realistic and compassionate. He is a sensitive observer with an unusual ability to see a foregn culture from the inside out, making its people alive and compelling to Western readers.